A temporary detention involves a police officer holding and questioning an individual for a short amount of time. To detain someone, police only need a reasonable suspicion and detentions are often accompanied by some form of search or frisk.
We analyzed 865 temporary detentions made by the City of Charlottesville Police Department between 2012-2017. The data was received in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by Jeff Fogel made over multiple time periods. We found that the CPD detain an average of 14.7 individuals per month with 65% being search or frisked. Significiantly, our analysis finds a disproportionate of detentions of black citizens compared to white citizens. In total, 603 black people were detained when compared to 259 white people creating a black to white detention ratio of 2.3.
Navigate to additional pages for further analysis:
Population estimates are from the 5-year American Community Survey 2013-2017 estimates, to overlap with the time period of the detention data; population percents are based on only the Black and White populations of Charlottesville to align with data on race available in the detention data.
Population estimates are from the 5-year American Community Survey 2013-2017 estimates, to overlap with the time period of the detention data; population percents are based on only the Black and White populations of Charlottesville to align with data on race available in the detention data. Missing data prior to July 2012 and data from June 2014 - December 2014
Data missing in 2012 prior to July and in 2014 after June. All year datasets except for 2015 only include detentions that lead to an arrest. As a results, the 2015 dataset contains an added number of detentions making it appear artifically larger.
Trends:
The data does not record why police enter certain spaces, whether it is an officer-initiated discretionary stop or a response to a call. We also do not have data on whether or not a detainment led to an arrest. The offense listed is the reason the police officer recorded to justify the stop based on reasonable suspicion, not a determination that the offense occured. Beacuse of this, it is difficult to say that police detainments are an indicator of crime. Fewer detainments does not immediatley signify less crime in an area, just less police activity.
Below, we highlight three areas, a predominantly black residential space, a predominantly white residential space, and a public walking mall to investigate who police detain and where.
# A tibble: 9 x 8
# Groups: NAME, RACE [6]
NAME BEAT_NO RACE SFTYPE Counts total RaceTot lab_pos
<chr> <dbl> <fct> <chr> <dbl> <int> <dbl> <dbl>
1 Martha Jefferson 8 Black STOP WITH SEARC… -2 6 -2 -4
2 Martha Jefferson 8 White Search WITHOUT … 3 6 4 6
3 Martha Jefferson 8 White STOP WITH SEARC… 1 6 4 6
4 "Prospect\\Orange… 21 Black Search WITHOUT … -7 29 -22 -24
5 "Prospect\\Orange… 21 Black STOP WITH SEARC… -15 29 -22 -24
6 "Prospect\\Orange… 21 White STOP WITH SEARC… 7 29 7 9
7 Ridge St 12 Black Search WITHOUT … -8 75 -64 -66
8 Ridge St 12 Black STOP WITH SEARC… -56 75 -64 -66
9 Ridge St 12 White STOP WITH SEARC… 11 75 11 13Historically, racial covenants prohibited Black individuals from living in the Martha Jefferson and Locust Grove. That legacy continues today
The Downtown Mall is a public space for free use by Charlottesville residents.
Police officers record a reason for detaining an individual. We recoded these reasons into the following categories: (1) Narcotics related, (2) Suspicious circumstances, (3) Disorderly conduct (including drunkeness), (4) Crimes on persons (e.g., assult, robbery, weapons), (5) Crimes on property (e.g., burglary, vandalism, trespassing), (6) Traffic-related (e.g., traffic stops, violations, accidents), and (7) everything else (e.g., assistance, unidentified). While several of the reasons represent categories of crimes, the recorded reason reflects the reasonable suspicion of an officer at the time of the stop, not a conclusion that the given crime has been committed. We do not have a record for whether the stop led to an arrest for all of the data provided.
The Charlottesville policing data was acquired by attorney Jeff Fogel through Freedom of Information Act requests. The site was created by Michele Claibourn, Sam Powers, and Enrique Unruh in a partnership between the Equity Center at UVA and Jordy Yager’s Determined series with Vinegar Hill Magazine and Charlottesville Tomorrow.
This is a work in progress and we plan to keep building and improving it. We appreciate all feedback – questions, corrections, concerns, ideas to make it better. You can reach us at CvilleEquityAtlas@virginia.edu. The source code to generate the analysis and this site are available on GitHub.